System and method for intelligent discount distribution based on subscriber tier

ABSTRACT

A system and method for operating a bundle-type checkout system incorporating subscription tiers, comprising a subscription manager that assigns subscription tiers to merchants, an offer manager that receives price offers from consumers and analyzes offers to compute bundle offers, a threshold calculator that calculates price discount thresholds and compares price discount values to offer values, and a discount optimization manager that calculates price discounts and determines acceptability of price offers, and a system and method for weighted discount distribution among subscription tiers.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 62/264,304, filed Dec. 7, 2015, entitled “SYSTEM ANDMETHOD FOR INTELLIGENT DISCOUNT DISTRIBUTION BASED ON SUBSCRIBER TIER”the entire contents of which are herein incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Art

The disclosure relates to the field of, and more particularly to thefield of distributing weighted discount to merchants based onsubscription tier in a bundled checkout scenario.

Discussion of the State of the Art

In the art of electronically purchasing products, it is common to allowconsumer to place an offer on items rather than pay a fixed price (forexample, online product portal such as Amazon.com™, AliBaba™,AliExpress™). In such arrangements, buyers typically submit a “bestoffer” for an item that may have a fixed price, rather than paying thelisted price. In such an arrangement, a merchant would then reviewoffers either manually or automatically, and select buyers with whom tocomplete a sale. There is currently no platform for potential buyers tosubmit a number of offers on items from a plurality of merchants, usingbundle-type pricing to make an offer on a group of items in anelectronic shopping cart, and no means exist for merchants to easilyconfigure bundle-type pricing or offer-acceptance rules for their stock.Furthermore, there is distinction between merchants. For example,merchants that may sell a high volume of products do not have creativeways to reduce discount in a bundle-type product arrangement.

What is needed, is a means to enable buyers to easily submit a priceoffer on multiple items, and for merchants to easily compare a receivedoffer against configured discount and bundle thresholds to determine anoptimum arrangement for an offer to maximize profit while appealing tobuyers through discounted pricing. Further, what is needed is a means todistinguish between different service levels or discounts applied todifferent tier merchants based on subscription tier.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the inventor has conceived and reduced to practice, in apreferred embodiment of the invention, a system and methods foroperating a checkout system incorporating bundle-type offer acceptancewith subscription tiers for merchants to enable a weighted discountscenario to increase revenue of product sales.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, a system foroperating a bundle-type checkout system incorporating subscriptiontiers, comprising a subscription manager comprising a plurality ofprogramming instructions stored in a memory and operating on a processorof a computing device, and configured to assign a plurality ofsubscription values to a plurality of merchant users; an offer managercomprising a plurality of programming instructions stored in a memoryand operating on a processor of a computing device, and configured toreceive a plurality of price offers from a plurality of consumer users,and configured to analyze received offers to compute a plurality ofbundle offers based at least in part on a portion of received offers; athreshold calculator comprising a plurality of programming instructionsstored in a memory and operating on a processor of a computing device,and configured to calculate a plurality of price discount thresholdsbased at least in part on a subscription values, and configured tocompare a plurality of price discount values to a plurality of offervalues; and a discount optimization manager comprising a plurality ofprogramming instructions stored in a memory and operating on a processorof a computing device, and configured to calculate a plurality of pricediscounts based at least in part on a merchant subscription level andbased at least in part on a discount threshold, and configured todetermine acceptability of a price offer based at least in part on anoffer value and based at least in part on a price discount, isdisclosed.

According to another preferred embodiment of the invention, method foroperating a bundle-type checkout system incorporating subscriptiontiers, comprising the steps of assigning, using a subscription managercomprising a plurality of programming instructions stored in a memoryand operating on a processor of a computing device, and configured toassign a plurality of subscription values to a plurality of merchantusers, a subscription value to a merchant user; receiving, at an offermanager comprising a plurality of programming instructions stored in amemory and operating on a processor of a computing device, andconfigured to receive a plurality of price offers from a plurality ofconsumer users, and configured to analyze received offers to compute aplurality of bundle offers based at least in part on a portion ofreceived offers, an offer from a consumer user; calculating, using athreshold calculator comprising a plurality of programming instructionsstored in a memory and operating on a processor of a computing device,and configured to calculate a plurality of price discount thresholdsbased at least in part on a subscription values, and configured tocompare a plurality of price discount values to a plurality of offervalues, a discount threshold based at least in part on the subscriptionvalue; comparing the received offer to the price discount threshold; anddetermining, using a discount optimization manager comprising aplurality of programming instructions stored in a memory and operatingon a processor of a computing device, and configured to calculate aplurality of price discounts based at least in part on a merchantsubscription level and based at least in part on a discount threshold,and configured to determine acceptability of a price offer based atleast in part on an offer value and based at least in part on a pricediscount, acceptability of the received offer, is disclosed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

The accompanying drawings illustrate several embodiments of theinvention and, together with the description, serve to explain theprinciples of the invention according to the embodiments. It will beappreciated by one skilled in the art that the particular embodimentsillustrated in the drawings are merely exemplary, and are not to beconsidered as limiting of the scope of the invention or the claimsherein in any way.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device used in an embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary logical architecturefor a client device, according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an exemplary architectural arrangementof clients, servers, and external services, according to an embodimentof the invention.

FIG. 4 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device used in various embodiments of theinvention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an exemplary system architecture foroperating a bundle-type checkout system incorporating subscriptiontiers, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for operatinga bundle-type checkout system incorporating subscription tiers, from theperspective of a participating merchant.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for operatinga bundle-type checkout system incorporating subscription tiers, from theperspective of a first consumer.

FIG. 8 is an illustration of an exemplary graphical user interface for abundle-type shopping cart incorporating product bundles, illustratingthe use of bundled price offers.

FIG. 9 is an illustration of an exemplary graphical user interface foran bundle-type shopping cart incorporating product bundles, illustratingthe use of itemized price offers.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for weighteddiscount distribution based on subscription tier in a bundle-typecheckout system incorporating subscription tiers.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The inventor has conceived, and reduced to practice, in a preferredembodiment of the invention, a system and methods for operating acheckout system incorporating bundle-type offers with weighted discountdistribution based on merchant subscription level.

One or more different inventions may be described in the presentapplication. Further, for one or more of the inventions describedherein, numerous alternative embodiments may be described; it should beappreciated that these are presented for illustrative purposes only andare not limiting of the inventions contained herein or the claimspresented herein in any way. One or more of the inventions may be widelyapplicable to numerous embodiments, as may be readily apparent from thedisclosure. In general, embodiments are described in sufficient detailto enable those skilled in the art to practice one or more of theinventions, and it should be appreciated that other embodiments may beutilized and that structural, logical, software, electrical and otherchanges may be made without departing from the scope of the particularinventions. Accordingly, one skilled in the art will recognize that oneor more of the inventions may be practiced with various modificationsand alterations. Particular features of one or more of the inventionsdescribed herein may be described with reference to one or moreparticular embodiments or figures that form a part of the presentdisclosure, and in which are shown, by way of illustration, specificembodiments of one or more of the inventions. It should be appreciated,however, that such features are not limited to usage in the one or moreparticular embodiments or figures with reference to which they aredescribed. The present disclosure is neither a literal description ofall embodiments of one or more of the inventions nor a listing offeatures of one or more of the inventions that must be present in allembodiments.

Headings of sections provided in this patent application and the titleof this patent application are for convenience only, and are not to betaken as limiting the disclosure in any way.

Devices that are in communication with each other need not be incontinuous communication with each other, unless expressly specifiedotherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with eachother may communicate directly or indirectly through one or morecommunication means or intermediaries, logical or physical.

A description of an embodiment with several components in communicationwith each other does not imply that all such components are required. Tothe contrary, a variety of optional components may be described toillustrate a wide variety of possible embodiments of one or more of theinventions and in order to more fully illustrate one or more aspects ofthe inventions. Similarly, although process steps, method steps,algorithms or the like may be described in a sequential order, suchprocesses, methods and algorithms may generally be configured to work inalternate orders, unless specifically stated to the contrary. In otherwords, any sequence or order of steps that may be described in thispatent application does not, in and of itself, indicate a requirementthat the steps be performed in that order. The steps of describedprocesses may be performed in any order practical. Further, some stepsmay be performed simultaneously despite being described or implied asoccurring non-simultaneously (e.g., because one step is described afterthe other step). Moreover, the illustration of a process by itsdepiction in a drawing does not imply that the illustrated process isexclusive of other variations and modifications thereto, does not implythat the illustrated process or any of its steps are necessary to one ormore of the invention(s), and does not imply that the illustratedprocess is preferred. Also, steps are generally described once perembodiment, but this does not mean they must occur once, or that theymay only occur once each time a process, method, or algorithm is carriedout or executed. Some steps may be omitted in some embodiments or someoccurrences, or some steps may be executed more than once in eachembodiment or occurrence.

When a single device or article is described herein, it will be clearthat more than one device or article may be used in place of a singledevice or article. Similarly, where more than one device or article isdescribed herein, it will be clear that a single device or article maybe used in place of the more than one device or article.

The functionality or the features of a device may be alternativelyembodied by one or more other devices that are not explicitly describedas having such functionality or features. Thus, other embodiments of oneor more of the inventions need not include the device itself.

Techniques and mechanisms described or referenced herein will sometimesbe described in singular form for clarity. However, it should beappreciated that particular embodiments may include multiple iterationsof a technique or multiple instantiations of a mechanism unless notedotherwise. Process descriptions or blocks in figures should beunderstood as representing modules, segments, or portions of code whichinclude one or more executable instructions for implementing specificlogical functions or steps in the process. Alternate implementations areincluded within the scope of embodiments of the present invention inwhich, for example, functions may be executed out of order from thatshown or discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverseorder, depending on the functionality involved, as would be understoodby those having ordinary skill in the art.

Hardware Architecture

Generally, the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented onhardware or a combination of software and hardware. For example, theymay be implemented in an operating system kernel, in a separate userprocess, in a library package bound into network applications, on aspecially constructed machine, on an application-specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), or on a network interface card.

Software/hardware hybrid implementations of at least some of theembodiments disclosed herein may be implemented on a programmablenetwork-resident machine (which should be understood to includeintermittently connected network-aware machines) selectively activatedor reconfigured by a computer program stored in memory. Such networkdevices may have multiple network interfaces that may be configured ordesigned to utilize different types of network communication protocols.A general architecture for some of these machines may be describedherein in order to illustrate one or more exemplary means by which agiven unit of functionality may be implemented. According to specificembodiments, at least some of the features or functionalities of thevarious embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented on one or moregeneral-purpose computers associated with one or more networks, such asfor example an end-user computer system, a client computer, a networkserver or other server system, a mobile computing device (e.g., tabletcomputing device, mobile phone, smartphone, laptop, or other appropriatecomputing device), a consumer electronic device, a music player, or anyother suitable electronic device, router, switch, or other suitabledevice, or any combination thereof. In at least some embodiments, atleast some of the features or functionalities of the various embodimentsdisclosed herein may be implemented in one or more virtualized computingenvironments (e.g., network computing clouds, virtual machines hosted onone or more physical computing machines, or other appropriate virtualenvironments).

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown a block diagram depicting anexemplary computing device 100 suitable for implementing at least aportion of the features or functionalities disclosed herein. Computingdevice 100 may be, for example, any one of the computing machines listedin the previous paragraph, or indeed any other electronic device capableof executing software- or hardware-based instructions according to oneor more programs stored in memory. Computing device 100 may be adaptedto communicate with a plurality of other computing devices, such asclients or servers, over communications networks such as a wide areanetwork a metropolitan area network, a local area network, a wirelessnetwork, the Internet, or any other network, using known protocols forsuch communication, whether wireless or wired.

In one embodiment, computing device 100 includes one or more centralprocessing units (CPU) 102, one or more interfaces 110, and one or morebusses 106 (such as a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus). Whenacting under the control of appropriate software or firmware, CPU 102may be responsible for implementing specific functions associated withthe functions of a specifically configured computing device or machine.For example, in at least one embodiment, a computing device 100 may beconfigured or designed to function as a server system utilizing CPU 102,local memory 101 and/or remote memory 120, and interface(s) 110. In atleast one embodiment, CPU 102 may be caused to perform one or more ofthe different types of functions and/or operations under the control ofsoftware modules or components, which for example, may include anoperating system and any appropriate applications software, drivers, andthe like.

CPU 102 may include one or more processors 103 such as, for example, aprocessor from one of the Intel, ARM, Qualcomm, and AMD families ofmicroprocessors. In some embodiments, processors 103 may includespecially designed hardware such as application-specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories(EEPROMs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and so forth, forcontrolling operations of computing device 100. In a specificembodiment, a local memory 101 (such as non-volatile random accessmemory (RAM) and/or read-only memory (ROM), including for example one ormore levels of cached memory) may also form part of CPU 102. However,there are many different ways in which memory may be coupled to system100. Memory 101 may be used for a variety of purposes such as, forexample, caching and/or storing data, programming instructions, and thelike. It should be further appreciated that CPU 102 may be one of avariety of system-on-a-chip (SOC) type hardware that may includeadditional hardware such as memory or graphics processing chips, such asa Qualcomm SNAPDRAGON™ or Samsung EXYNOS™ CPU as are becomingincreasingly common in the art, such as for use in mobile devices orintegrated devices.

As used herein, the term “processor” is not limited merely to thoseintegrated circuits referred to in the art as a processor, a mobileprocessor, or a microprocessor, but broadly refers to a microcontroller,a microcomputer, a programmable logic controller, anapplication-specific integrated circuit, and any other programmablecircuit.

In one embodiment, interfaces 110 are provided as network interfacecards (NICs). Generally, NICs control the sending and receiving of datapackets over a computer network; other types of interfaces 110 may forexample support other peripherals used with computing device 100. Amongthe interfaces that may be provided are Ethernet interfaces, frame relayinterfaces, cable interfaces, DSL interfaces, token ring interfaces,graphics interfaces, and the like. In addition, various types ofinterfaces may be provided such as, for example, universal serial bus(USB), Serial, Ethernet, FIREWIRE™, THUNDERBOLT™, PCI, parallel, radiofrequency (RF), BLUETOOTH™, near-field communications (e.g., usingnear-field magnetics), 802.11 (WiFi), frame relay, TCP/IP, ISDN, fastEthernet interfaces, Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, Serial ATA (SATA) orexternal SATA (ESATA) interfaces, high-definition multimedia interface(HDMI), digital visual interface (DVI), analog or digital audiointerfaces, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) interfaces, high-speedserial interface (HSSI) interfaces, Point of Sale (POS) interfaces,fiber data distributed interfaces (FDDIs), and the like. Generally, suchinterfaces 110 may include physical ports appropriate for communicationwith appropriate media. In some cases, they may also include anindependent processor (such as a dedicated audio or video processor, asis common in the art for high-fidelity A/V hardware interfaces) and, insome instances, volatile and/or non-volatile memory (e.g., RAM).

Although the system shown in FIG. 1 illustrates one specificarchitecture for a computing device 100 for implementing one or more ofthe inventions described herein, it is by no means the only devicearchitecture on which at least a portion of the features and techniquesdescribed herein may be implemented. For example, architectures havingone or any number of processors 103 may be used, and such processors 103may be present in a single device or distributed among any number ofdevices. In one embodiment, a single processor 103 handlescommunications as well as routing computations, while in otherembodiments a separate dedicated communications processor may beprovided. In various embodiments, different types of features orfunctionalities may be implemented in a system according to theinvention that includes a client device (such as a tablet device orsmartphone running client software) and server systems (such as a serversystem described in more detail below).

Regardless of network device configuration, the system of the presentinvention may employ one or more memories or memory modules (such as,for example, remote memory block 120 and local memory 101) configured tostore data, program instructions for the general-purpose networkoperations, or other information relating to the functionality of theembodiments described herein (or any combinations of the above). Programinstructions may control execution of or comprise an operating systemand/or one or more applications, for example. Memory 120 or memories101, 120 may also be configured to store data structures, configurationdata, encryption data, historical system operations information, or anyother specific or generic non-program information described herein.

Because such information and program instructions may be employed toimplement one or more systems or methods described herein, at least somenetwork device embodiments may include nontransitory machine-readablestorage media, which, for example, may be configured or designed tostore program instructions, state information, and the like forperforming various operations described herein. Examples of suchnontransitory machine-readable storage media include, but are notlimited to, magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, andmagnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical mediasuch as optical disks, and hardware devices that are speciallyconfigured to store and perform program instructions, such as read-onlymemory devices (ROM), flash memory (as is common in mobile devices andintegrated systems), solid state drives (SSD) and “hybrid SSD” storagedrives that may combine physical components of solid state and hard diskdrives in a single hardware device (as are becoming increasingly commonin the art with regard to personal computers), memristor memory, randomaccess memory (RAM), and the like. It should be appreciated that suchstorage means may be integral and non-removable (such as RAM hardwaremodules that may be soldered onto a motherboard or otherwise integratedinto an electronic device), or they may be removable such as swappableflash memory modules (such as “thumb drives” or other removable mediadesigned for rapidly exchanging physical storage devices),“hot-swappable” hard disk drives or solid state drives, removableoptical storage discs, or other such removable media, and that suchintegral and removable storage media may be utilized interchangeably.Examples of program instructions include both object code, such as maybe produced by a compiler, machine code, such as may be produced by anassembler or a linker, byte code, such as may be generated by forexample a Java™ compiler and may be executed using a Java virtualmachine or equivalent, or files containing higher level code that may beexecuted by the computer using an interpreter (for example, scriptswritten in Python, Perl, Ruby, Groovy, or any other scripting language).

In some embodiments, systems according to the present invention may beimplemented on a standalone computing system. Referring now to FIG. 2,there is shown a block diagram depicting a typical exemplaryarchitecture of one or more embodiments or components thereof on astandalone computing system. Computing device 200 includes processors210 that may run software that carry out one or more functions orapplications of embodiments of the invention, such as for example aclient application 230. Processors 210 may carry out computinginstructions under control of an operating system 220 such as, forexample, a version of Microsoft's WINDOWS™ operating system, Apple's MacOS/X or iOS operating systems, some variety of the Linux operatingsystem, Google's ANDROID™ operating system, or the like. In many cases,one or more shared services 225 may be operable in system 200, and maybe useful for providing common services to client applications 230.Services 225 may for example be WINDOWS™ services, user-space commonservices in a Linux environment, or any other type of common servicearchitecture used with operating system 210. Input devices 270 may be ofany type suitable for receiving user input, including for example akeyboard, touchscreen, microphone (for example, for voice input), mouse,touchpad, trackball, or any combination thereof. Output devices 260 maybe of any type suitable for providing output to one or more users,whether remote or local to system 200, and may include for example oneor more screens for visual output, speakers, printers, or anycombination thereof. Memory 240 may be random-access memory having anystructure and architecture known in the art, for use by processors 210,for example to run software. Storage devices 250 may be any magnetic,optical, mechanical, memristor, or electrical storage device for storageof data in digital form (such as those described above, referring toFIG. 1). Examples of storage devices 250 include flash memory, magnetichard drive, CD-ROM, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, systems of the present invention may be implementedon a distributed computing network, such as one having any number ofclients and/or servers. Referring now to FIG. 3, there is shown a blockdiagram depicting an exemplary architecture 300 for implementing atleast a portion of a system according to an embodiment of the inventionon a distributed computing network. According to the embodiment, anynumber of clients 330 may be provided. Each client 330 may run softwarefor implementing client-side portions of the present invention; clientsmay comprise a system 200 such as that illustrated in FIG. 2. Inaddition, any number of servers 320 may be provided for handlingrequests received from one or more clients 330. Clients 330 and servers320 may communicate with one another via one or more electronic networks310, which may be in various embodiments any of the Internet, a widearea network, a mobile telephony network (such as CDMA or GSM cellularnetworks), a wireless network (such as WiFi, WiMAX, LTE, and so forth),or a local area network (or indeed any network topology known in theart; the invention does not prefer any one network topology over anyother). Networks 310 may be implemented using any known networkprotocols, including for example wired and/or wireless protocols.

In addition, in some embodiments, servers 320 may call external services370 when needed to obtain additional information, or to refer toadditional data concerning a particular call. Communications withexternal services 370 may take place, for example, via one or morenetworks 310. In various embodiments, external services 370 may compriseweb-enabled services or functionality related to or installed on thehardware device itself. For example, in an embodiment where clientapplications 230 are implemented on a smartphone or other electronicdevice, client applications 230 may obtain information stored in aserver system 320 in the cloud or on an external service 370 deployed onone or more of a particular enterprise's or user's premises.

In some embodiments of the invention, clients 330 or servers 320 (orboth) may make use of one or more specialized services or appliancesthat may be deployed locally or remotely across one or more networks310. For example, one or more databases 340 may be used or referred toby one or more embodiments of the invention. It should be understood byone having ordinary skill in the art that databases 340 may be arrangedin a wide variety of architectures and using a wide variety of dataaccess and manipulation means. For example, in various embodiments oneor more databases 340 may comprise a relational database system using astructured query language (SQL), while others may comprise analternative data storage technology such as those referred to in the artas “NoSQL” (for example, Hadoop Cassandra, Google BigTable, and soforth). In some embodiments, variant database architectures such ascolumn-oriented databases, in-memory databases, clustered databases,distributed databases, or even flat file data repositories may be usedaccording to the invention. It will be appreciated by one havingordinary skill in the art that any combination of known or futuredatabase technologies may be used as appropriate, unless a specificdatabase technology or a specific arrangement of components is specifiedfor a particular embodiment herein. Moreover, it should be appreciatedthat the term “database” as used herein may refer to a physical databasemachine, a cluster of machines acting as a single database system, or alogical database within an overall database management system. Unless aspecific meaning is specified for a given use of the term “database”, itshould be construed to mean any of these senses of the word, all ofwhich are understood as a plain meaning of the term “database” by thosehaving ordinary skill in the art.

Similarly, most embodiments of the invention may make use of one or moresecurity systems 360 and configuration systems 350. Security andconfiguration management are common information technology (IT) and webfunctions, and some amount of each are generally associated with any ITor web systems. It should be understood by one having ordinary skill inthe art that any configuration or security subsystems known in the artnow or in the future may be used in conjunction with embodiments of theinvention without limitation, unless a specific security 360 orconfiguration system 350 or approach is specifically required by thedescription of any specific embodiment.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary overview of a computer system 400 as may beused in any of the various locations throughout the system. It isexemplary of any computer that may execute code to process data. Variousmodifications and changes may be made to computer system 400 withoutdeparting from the broader spirit and scope of the system and methoddisclosed herein. CPU 401 is connected to bus 402, to which bus is alsoconnected memory 403, nonvolatile memory 404, display 407, I/O unit 408,and network interface card (NIC) 413. I/O unit 408 may, typically, beconnected to keyboard 409, pointing device 410, hard disk 412, andreal-time clock 411. NIC 413 connects to network 414, which may be theInternet or a local network, which local network may or may not haveconnections to the Internet. Also, shown as part of system 400 is powersupply unit 405 connected, in this example, to ac supply 406. Not shownare batteries that could be present, and many other devices andmodifications that are well known but are not applicable to the specificnovel functions of the current system and method disclosed herein. Itshould be appreciated that some or all components illustrated may becombined, such as in various integrated applications (for example,Qualcomm or Samsung SOC-based devices), or whenever it may beappropriate to combine multiple capabilities or functions into a singlehardware device (for instance, in mobile devices such as smartphones,video game consoles, in-vehicle computer systems such as navigation ormultimedia systems in automobiles, or other integrated hardwaredevices).

In various embodiments, functionality for implementing systems ormethods of the present invention may be distributed among any number ofclient and/or server components. For example, various software modulesmay be implemented for performing various functions in connection withthe present invention, and such modules may be variously implemented torun on server and/or client components.

Conceptual Architecture

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an exemplary system architecture 500 foroperating a bundle-type checkout system 501 incorporating subscriptiontiers, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. Accordingto the embodiment, a bundle-type checkout system 501 in communicationwith a plurality of client interfaces operating on a network (forexample, a packet switched network, the internet, local area network(LAN), wide area network (WAN), or the like) such as a merchantinterface 520 and consumer interface 521, that may each comprise aplurality of programming instructions stored in a memory and operatingon a processor of a network-connected computing device, and may beconfigured to communicate via a network 560 such as the Internet orother data communication network. For example, merchant interface 520may be configured to communicate via a cloud-based protocol to receiveinteractions from a plurality of merchant devices 551 via a network 560,such as to enable merchants to interact with a checkout system 501 via aweb browser, another software application, or a specially programmeduser computer, for example to configure operation of a particularcheckout arrangement (such as an electronic storefront for a particularmerchant), or to communicate with a plurality of merchant devices 540via a local network connection such as a LAN operated by a merchant, oran internal data network operating on a merchant device. In someembodiments, merchant interface assigns a merchant device identifier to,for example merchants registering with system 501. In some embodiment,merchant interface 520 may receive, from a plurality of merchant devices540, a plurality of product identifiers corresponding to products that amerchant may have for sale. Consumer interface 521 may be configured tocommunicate via a network with a plurality of consumer devices 550, forexample via a software application operating on a plurality of consumerdevices 550 or, for example, a plurality of specially programmedconsumer computer 550. In some embodiments, consumers may communicatewith system 501 via a web interface accessible via a browserapplication.

According to the embodiment, checkout system 501 may further comprise aplurality of data storage, for example a product database 530 that maybe configured to store product identifiers and provide informationpertaining to products such as pricing or inventory information, or aconfiguration database 531 that may be configured to store and provideconfiguration information for operating a bundle-type checkout system501, such as merchant-specific pricing thresholds (as described below),and merchant subscription tiers. Historical database 532 may beconfigured to store (i) historical sales information outliningindividual offer and sales information for product identifiers forcompleted sales in a bundle-type offer scenario, (ii) historical bundleoffer and sales information for a plurality of bundles, (iii)unsuccessful offers by consumer devices 550, (iv) product identifiers bysubscription tier (v) common bundle arrangements by a plurality ofconsumer devices 550, (vi) and the like. It can be appreciated by onewith ordinary skill in the art that, in a preferred embodiment, any andall transaction in system 501 may be stored in historical database 532.Administration interface 541 provides an interface for the operator ofsystem 501 to configure manage system 501, including but not limited to,configuring merchant devices 551 and consumer devices 550, configuringsubscription tiers, analyzing historical sales and bundle information,setting thresholds, and other system configurations. Analytics engine522 may provide a mechanism to analyze historical data to performanalysis on historical sales, bundles, retail price to discounted pricedeviations, and the like. In some embodiments analytics engine 522 mayprovide “what-if” scenarios to recalculate product sales if merchantswere of different tiers to forecast sales differentials for subscriptiontiers for non-subscribing merchants, or a higher subscription tiers forlower subscribing merchants (for example where a higher subscriptiontier would enjoy a lesser discount on the merchant's products whenpossible). System 501 may further comprise a plurality of programminginstructions configured to operate specific functions of system 501,such as including, for example, according to a preferred embodiment, adiscount optimization manager 510 that may calculate merchant discountsaccording to configured parameters based on, for example, a merchant'ssubscription tier, in order to optimize a match with a plurality ofconsumer offers. Optimization manager 510 may calculate an availablediscount, and compare it to s requested discount to determine, forexample, whether or not to accept an offer. In some embodiments,optimization manger may create a discount distribution matrix (asdescribed in FIG. 10) to weight discounts provided to subscription tiermerchant devices 551. A subscription manager 511 may configuremembership levels or “subscription tiers” for merchants and defineconfiguration parameters related to merchant tiers (such as defaultdiscount configuration, subscription-tier discount configuration, andthe like). Administrator 541 may configure any number of subscriptiontiers via subscription manager 511. In some embodiments, subscriptiontiers may be dynamically created by discount optimization manager 510based on historical product sales information, to optimize subscriptiontiers to maximize revenue for merchants and/or maximize revenue for theoperator of system 501. An offer manager 512 may receive and managebundle-type pricing offers from consumers for comparison, or a thresholdcalculator 513 may calculate comparisons between merchant discounts andconsumer offers to determine suitability or allocation of funds after apurchase is made, for example according to allocation rules set by asubscription manager. Administration 541 may be used to configure thesystem and configuration stored in config database 531. Configurationmay include, but not limited to, setting subscription tiers andassociated discounts (as described in FIG. 10), configuring merchants,and other system configurations. Such functions are described in greaterdetail below, referring to FIGS. 6-10.

Detailed Description Of Exemplary Embodiments

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method 600 foroperating a bundle-type checkout system incorporating subscriptiontiers, from the perspective of merchant device 551. According to theembodiment, a merchant may elect, via merchant device 551, toparticipate in a bundle-type checkout system 501 incorporatingsubscription tiers, and may configure the particular nature of such asystem to suit their preference according to the embodiment.

In an initial step 601, a merchant may subscribe to a service level, or“subscription tier”. Service levels may be used to define pre-configuredoperation parameters, such as default pricing discount rules andalgorithms used in comparing discounts to consumer offers. For example,a merchant subscribed to a “gold tier” may be entitled to a higherportion of a consumer's purchase price (based upon a consumer offers ahigher price than the discount level set for a product identifier and/orbundle), whereas a merchant subscribed to a “bronze tier” may beentitled to a smaller portion or lower allocation priority (that is,they may only receive funds if there is a remaining surplus after firstallocating to higher-tier merchants). In some embodiments, there is anon-subscriber tier, where full discounts will be offered before anydiscount is associated to product identifiers associated to subscribertier merchant identifiers.

In a next step 602, a merchant via a first merchant device 551 may add aproduct identifier to their online storefront inventory, making theassociated product available for purchase by a plurality of consumersvia identifying the associated product identifier via a plurality ofconsumer devices 550. In a next step 603, the first merchant device 551may set a product discount threshold level for use in comparing againstthe plurality of offers received from a plurality of consumer devices550 (for example, by a threshold calculator described above, referringto FIG. 5), such as by using a preconfigured or default level set bytheir service level, or by specifying a discount of their choosing. Forexample, the merchant device 551 may designate to accept “up to 20% off”on a particular item, specifying that any consumer offers meeting atleast 80% of the product's initial price value may be accepted via afirst merchant device 551. In some embodiments, the merchant mayestablish, via first merchant device 551, a lowest acceptable offer(hereinafter referred to as “LAO”) price for each individual productavailable for sale and associated to the corresponding productidentifier. In this regard, threshold calculator 513 may assign adifferent LAO based on a quantity of a particular product identifierwithin a bundle selected by a first consumer device 550, for example,based on predefined threshold rules configured by threshold calculator513. In another embodiment, a LAO price is calculated once a percentagediscount is specified by a merchant via first merchant device 551. In anext step 604, the merchant, via first merchant device 551, may setautomatic quantity discount threshold levels, for example to specifyadditional quantities that may be used as “bundles” when a consumerpurchases multiples of the same item, or multiple items from the samemerchant (for example, “buy 5 of this item” or “buy 3 items from thisseller”). In a next step 605, the merchant, via first merchant device551, may set quantity discount thresholds, for example to correspond toquantities set in a previous step 604. For example, the merchant, viafirst merchant device 551, may specify a discount rule of “purchase 5 ofthis item, get an extra 5% off”, or discount thresholds that may betransparent to first consumer device 550, such as “accept offers of atleast 75% if first consumer device 550 is requesting to purchase five ormore items”, or other such configurations. In this regard, for eachdiscount threshold, a LAO will be calculated for each product identifierbased on the threshold level. In a next step 606, the merchant, viafirst merchant device 551, may set product details such as variousdescription for an item, for example technical specifications forelectronics or appliances, or various descriptive text to be presentedto a consumer while browsing via a first consumer device 550. Operationmay continue in an iterative or looping fashion, repeating back at aprevious step 602 and enabling the first merchant device 551 to continueconfiguring a plurality of additional items, discount thresholds, orquantity thresholds as desired.

In a preferred embodiment, a LAO for each product identifier may bedynamically changed with a LAO offset. The LAO offset automaticallymodifies the LAO for each consumer device 550 such that the plurality ofconsumer devices 550 will never receive the same LAO for a productidentifier and/or bundle. It can be appreciated by one with ordinaryskill in the art that in the circumstance where a consumer, via consumerdevice 550 may deduce an LAO for a product identifier and/or bundle, ifshe advertises the LAO to other users of system 501, the LAO will not bethe same for other users, thus rendering the information inaccurate andthus maintaining the integrity and utility of bundle-type checkoutsystem 501 incorporating subscription tiers. For example, a LAO offsetmay be calculated for first consumer device 550 using at least alocation specific data combined with, for example, a time of day for apurchase made by first consumer device 550, combined with, for example,a temperature for the location of first consumer device 550. It shouldbe appreciated that any information specific to first consumer device550 may be useful in calculating an LAO offset. As such, a different LAOwould be calculated for the same product identifier and/or bundle forevery consumer device 500. In this regard, since second consumer device550 which may be in another location or purchasing at anothertime-of-day than first consumer device 550, the LAO prices would appearto be seemingly random preventing any communication of LAOs for productidentifiers and/or bundles by users of system 501.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method 700 foroperating a bundle-type checkout system incorporating subscriptiontiers, from the perspective of first consumer device 550. According tothe embodiment, a consumer may browse and shop for items electronicallyvia first consumer device 550 using familiar means, such as a mobilecomputing device or an online storefront being browsed via a web browsercomputer. When a particular merchant or storefront has been configuredaccording to a bundle-type checkout system according to the embodiment,additional functionality may be available, and may be made optionallyvisible or transparent to first consumer device 550 according to aparticular arrangement (for example, first consumer device 550 may notbe informed of a product identifier's discount thresholds, or it mayalternately be informed of specific discount thresholds or quantities toencourage purchasing by the user of first consumer device 550, accordingto a vendor's preference during configuration).

In an initial step 701, a consumer, via first consumer device 550, mayadd a product identifier to a digital “shopping basket”, as is common inthe art of electronic shopping. In a next step 702, an individualproduct offer may be received by a checkout system, for example if firstconsumer device 550 has added only a single item to their basket andmade a purchase offer for that item. Additionally, first consumer device550 may be used by a consumer to select a plurality of productidentifiers to purchase as a bundle. If, for example, an offer is made,via first consumer device 550, on multiple items but no bundlethresholds are met, operation may continue looping as illustrated,producing individual product offers for each individual item. In analternate step 703, a bundle offer may be received from first consumerdevice 550 by checkout system 501. Once a bundle is selected, a consumermay submit a single offer via first consumer device 550 to purchase theentire bundle. In a next step 704, threshold calculator 513 maycalculate product discount thresholds corresponding to the productidentifiers for which offers were received, and in a next step 705subscription manager 511 may determine a subscription tier for merchantsoffering the products. For example, subscription tiers may be bronze,silver, and gold which, in this regard, may indicate levels ofsubscriptions that, for example, may have different subscription costsassociated and distinct associated discount rules applied. For example,a merchant may become a bronze subscriber at a lower cost than a silversubscriber, which in-turn is a lower cost than a gold subscriber. Insome embodiments, there may be product identifiers designated asnon-member tier product identifiers where the merchant may not besubscribed to a subscription tier. In a next step 706, discountoptimization manager 510 may calculate discount thresholds for items andbundles, taking into consideration a merchant's subscription tier tocalculate an optimum discount for each item or bundle based on eachparticipating merchant's subscription tier and configured discountthresholds. An exemplary process for calculating a weighted subscriptiontier discount is presented in FIG. 10. In a next step 707, calculateddiscount thresholds may be compared against received offers from firstconsumer device 550, to determine how to proceed. If an offer for anitem meets or exceed a discount threshold for that item, the offer maybe accepted in a final step 708. If an offer meets or is within adiscount threshold for a bundle (for example, if an offer price for theentire shopping basket as a whole, i.e. the bundle, is received fromfirst consumer device 550, and it exceeds a bundle threshold based onthe items in their cart considered together as a bundle rather than asseparate individual items), then the offer may be accepted in a finalstep 709. If an offer exceeds any thresholds for items or bundles, itmay be declined in a final step 710, resulting in the items and/orbundle not being available for purchase, optionally with a notificationto first consumer device 550, for example by sending a notification tofirst consumer device 550 that the offer is not accepted for the item(s)and/or bundle in question. In some embodiments, first consumer device550 may be given an opportunity to submit a new offer as may beappropriate. In another embodiment, the amount of offers available tofirst consumer device 550 may be limited by offer manager 512. Forexample, after three declined offers, the system may not allow firstconsumer device 550 to place additional offers, for example, for (i)product identifiers within the bundle, (ii) the bundle itself, (iii)until a pre-defined period of time has passed, or (iv) a combination ofthese. In some embodiments, an entirely new LAO is calculated for theproduct identifiers and/or bundle where different offers may be acceptedor declined in certain circumstances. It should be appreciated thatother restrictions may be placed on product identifiers and/or bundleswhen an offer is declined.

FIG. 8 is an illustration of an exemplary graphical user interface 800for a bundle-type checkout system incorporating subscription tiers,showing the use of bundled price offers. According to the embodiment, aconsumer who may be shopping electronically may select an item 801, viafirst consumer device 550, to an electronic shopping cart, and maycontinue selecting additional items 802, 803. After adding a final item803 to a shopping cart, a consumer may choose to “checkout” and completea sale, first consumer device 550, for the selected items. According tothe embodiment, during checkout, first consumer device 550 may beprompted to submit a price offer 810 for the bundle. For example, asillustrated first consumer device 550 may have a variety of items intheir cart such as furniture, household goods, appliances, or otherproducts. An offer 810 may be submitted via first consumer device 550for the bundle as a whole, which may cover their entire shopping cart asillustrated. In such an arrangement, offer 810 may be a single priceoffered for all items within the bundle, and if accepted by offermanager 512 (either manually or automatically, such as by comparison andmatching against configured price thresholds as described previously),will result in a successful purchase for all included items in thebundle. In some embodiments, the product identifiers in the bundle arefrom a plurality of merchants previously configured through a pluralityof merchant devices 551 wherein each merchant may be subscribed to asubscription tier further wherein the product identifiers associated toeach merchant may enjoy a smaller discount applied to their respectiveproduct identifiers as described in FIG. 10 (that is, if theproportional offer for product identifiers belonging to subscribedmerchant is above the collective LAO, the product identifiers belongingto subscribed merchants may be discounted at a lesser amount thanproduct identifiers from merchant who may not have no subscription tier.Accordingly, the consumer, via first consumer device 550, may thenselect to preview and confirm their offer, generally via interactiveinterface indicia such as, for example, a “preview my deal” button 820or other interactive means.

FIG. 9 is an illustration of an exemplary graphical user interface 900for a bundle-type checkout system incorporating subscription tiers,showing the use of itemized price offers. According to the embodiment, aconsumer may add a plurality of items 901, 902, 903 via first consumerdevice 550 to an electronic shopping cart. During a checkout process,the consumer may specify individual price offers 910, 911, 912 via firstconsumer device 550 for each item, indicating an offer on a per-itembasis for the contents of their cart. The consumer may then preview 920their offers via first consumer device 550, to confirm the offers andfor which items the offers are being made. Upon submission to checkoutsystem 501, each offer may be considered individually against anydiscount thresholds for the items involved, and each item may beindividually approved or denied by offer manager 512 without affectingother items. Optionally, first consumer device 550 may be notified withan option to switch to a bundled price offer arrangement, if firstconsumer device 550 have any qualifying bundles in their shopping basket(as described previously).

The illustrations of FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 are for representative purposes,and one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate that any number ofGUIs and other graphical representations that may be generated by system501, and embodiments of the present invention are contemplated for usewith any GUI type or form and the generation of any such graphicalrepresentation.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for weighteddiscount distribution based on subscription tier level. In a preferredembodiment, a network-connected subscription tier discount distributioncomputer comprising at least a processor and a memory further comprisinga plurality of programming instructions stored in the memory andoperating on a processor, the programming instructions comprising asystem to perform distribution of discounts to a plurality ofconsumer-selected product identifiers when purchased as a bundle isdisclosed. It should be appreciated that a bundle may consist of onlyone product. According to the embodiment, in an initial step 1001,discount optimization manager 510 analyzes all product identifiers in anelectronic shopping cart as selected by a first consumer device 550.That is, for each product identifier, discount optimization manager 510calculates the difference between the advertised retail price and anassociated pre-configured LAO price. The calculated amount is referredto as the “available discount” (that is, the total amount that aconsumer may request as a discount on the bundle). Once all availablediscounts are calculated for each product identifier, a “total availablediscount” is calculated by adding the individual available discount freach product identifier within the bundle. It should be appreciated thatthe plurality of product identifiers in the shopping cart may beselected by a consumer using first consumer device 550 associated to asingle merchant device 551 or associated to a plurality of merchantdevices 551. In a next step 1002, discount optimization manager 510identifies product identifiers within the shopping cart as selected byfirst consumer device 550, receives a bundled offer from first consumerdevice 550, that is, a single offer price entered by the consumer viafirst consumer device 550 for the bundle, as, for example, described inFIG. 8.

In a next step 1003, discount optimization manager 510 calculates a“requested discount” by comparing the total retail price of all productidentifiers within the bundle to the offer price by first consumerdevice 550. discount optimization manager 510 then calculates thedifference between the requested discount and the total availablediscount. If the requested discount is greater than the total availablediscount, then the offer is rejected in a final step 1007 wherebynotification of the rejected offer is sent to first consumer device 550.In some embodiments, first consumer device 550 may be prompted, viaconsumer interface 521, to enter a new offer for the bundle. In someembodiments, first consumer 550 may be limited in the number of offersthat may be made on a particular bundle. For example, discountoptimization manager 510 may limit offers to a quantity of two rejectedoffers. In this regard after two rejected offers, discount optimizationmanager 510 may disable the ability for first consumer device 550 toenter a third offer through consumer interface 521. For example, for apre-specified amount of time, or for the current combination of productidentifiers in the bundle. In another embodiment, a new LAO may becalculated for each product identifier within the bundle creating a newtotal LAO for the bundle as discussed previously.

Continuing with step 1003, if the requested discount is equal to thetotal available discount, then the discount may be applied to all theproduct identifiers (for example, to establish the selling price of eachproduct identifier within the bundle at a selling price equal to the LAOprice). If the requested discount is less than the total availablediscount, a next step 1004 calculates the number of product identifiersin the bundle. For each product identifier in the bundle, discountoptimization manager 510 locates the product identifier in productdatabase 530 to identify an associated merchant device 551 anddetermines a subscription tier (for example, subscription tiersrepresenting “gold”, “silver”, or “bronze” tiered merchants), if any,for associated merchant as may have been previously configured throughsubscription manager 511. In a next step 1005, discount optimizationmanager 510 computes the number of subscription tiers represented by allthe product identifiers within the bundle. If only one subscription tieris represented within the plurality of product identifiers in thebundle, then step 1006 distributes the requested discount proportionallyacross all product identifiers an even fashion. For example, if therequested discount is 10%, then 10% of the available discount for eachproduct identifier is set as the selling price for each productidentifier and an overall 10% bundle price will be presented in step1050. As such, an accepted offer is sent to first consumer device 550through consumer interface 521. In should be appreciated that in apreferred embodiment, individual discounts available to first consumerdevice 550 for the selected product identifiers are not visible to firstconsumer device 550; however, in another embodiment, consumer interface521 may present product discount information for individual productidentifiers to first consumer device 550.

Referring again to step 1005, if discount optimization manager 510determines that there are more than one subscription tiers representedfrom the bundled product identifiers, then step 1010 removes the productidentifiers associated to one or more merchant devices 551 who areidentified as non-subscribers. In some embodiments, a non-subscribingmerchant may still be categorized as a tier. In a next step 1011,discount optimization manager 510 calculates a “first subtotal availablediscount” (hereinafter referred to as “non-subscriber total discount”)for product identifiers associated to the non-subscriber tier. In a nextstep 1012 discount optimization manager 510 calculates a “secondsubtotal available discount” (hereinafter referred to as “subscribertotal discount”) for product identifiers associated to one or moremerchant devices 551 who are identified as subscribers as may have beenpreconfigured via subscription manager 551. The subscriber discount iscalculated by subtracting the non-subscriber total discount from therequested discount.

In a next step 1013 the non-subscriber total discount is compared to therequested discount by discount optimization manager 510. If therequested discount is equal to the non-subscriber total discount, thenthe requested discount amount is evenly discounted from the productidentifiers associated with one or more non-subscribing merchant devices551 (that is the final sale price for the product identifiers associatedwith non-subscribing members will be set at the LAO). Further, nodiscount may be applied to product identifiers associated to merchantswho have a subscription as preconfigured through subscription manager511 (that is, the price will be set at the retail price for productidentifiers associated to merchants with a subscription) in step 1021.It can be appreciated that by being a subscriber of bundle-type checkoutsystem 501, a merchant can increase revenues in a bundled purchasescenario. Accordingly, in a next step 1050, the offer price is acceptedand presented to first consumer device 550 for purchase through consumerinterface 521.

Referring again to step 1013, if the requested discount is less than thenon-subscriber total discount, a percentage discount is calculated bydiscount optimization manager 510 by dividing the requested discount bynon-subscriber total discount. The product identifiers associated to thenon-subscriber tier are discounted by the calculated percentage (that isthe final sale price for the product identifiers associated withnon-subscribing members will be set at the retail price minus thecalculated percentage). Furthermore, no discount is applied to productidentifiers associated to merchants who have a subscription as may havebeen preconfigured through subscription manager 511 (that is, the pricewill be set at the retail price for product identifiers associated tomerchants with a subscription) in step 1021. Accordingly, in a next step1050, the offer price is accepted and presented to first consumer device550 to confirm a purchase through consumer interface 521.

Referring again to step 1013, based upon the requested discount beinggreater than the non-subscriber total discount, then, in step 1040, afinal selling price is set at its respective LAO price for each productidentifier associated to one or more non-subscribing merchant devices551. Furthermore, in step 1041, a final selling price for productidentifiers associated to one or more merchant devices 551, who aresubscribers, is based on a weighted discount based on the respectivesubscription tier associated to each product identifier (that is, forproduct identifiers associated to merchant devices 551 that havesubscribed to a particular subscription tier). It should be appreciatedthat a merchant who may pay for a higher-level subscription, may enjoyan automatic discount at a lower rate than merchants who pay for alesser tier of subscription (or no subscription). In a preferredembodiment, a network-connected weighted discount distribution computerbased on merchant subscription tiers, as pre-configured by subscriptionmanager 511, comprises at least a processor and a memory, furthercomprising a plurality of programming instructions stored in the memoryand operating on a processor, the programming instructions adapted tocalculating a matrix of discount values for weighted discounts is asfollows:

Variable x may be an integer that sets the number of subscription tiers.For example, x=5 represents that there are 5 subscription tiers.

Variable y is a total subscriber “total discount” value for all tiervalues combined. For example, y=150.50 is the value as calculated instep 1012

Variable z is the percentage increase from each subscription tier to thenext subscription tier. That is the difference in discount that will beapplied to each tier. For example, where z=0.25 a second merchant device551 who may have a higher subscription tier (for example, “gold level”versus “silver level”, may enjoy a 25% reduction on a discount appliedto their associated product identifiers within the bundle. In apreferred embodiment, the distribution weighting is configurable byoptimization manager 510 through admin console 541. In some embodiments,the percentage increase may be calculated dynamically for the particularbundle as selected by first consumer 550.

Step 1041 continues wherein in a preferred embodiment, a ComputeWeightedDitributionByTiers function computes weighted discountdistribution for x number of subscription tier groups as follows:

function ComputeWeightedDitributionByTiers (x, y, z) //initialize amatrix of size x * x with zeros pascal_matrix[ ] = matrix(fill = 0, size= x * x) for i ← 1 to x do for j ← 1 to i do pascal_matrix[i, j] ←choose(i − 1, j − 1) sum.coefficients[ ] ← colSums(pascal_matrix) //solve for x1 such that x1 = y/z_sum z_sum ← 0 for i ← 1 to x do z_sum <−z_sum + sum.coefficients [i] * z{circumflex over ( )}(i − 1) x1 ←round(y ÷ z_sum, 2) //Compute final value of each x tier solution[ ] ←matrix(fill = 0, size = 1 * x) solution[1] ← x1 for i ← 2 to x dosolution[i] ← solution[i − 1] * (z + 1)  //transform results to bepercentages of y  solution ← round(solution ÷ y, 3) return(solution)

In an exemplary embodiment where there are three subscription tiers(e.g. x=3, wherein, for example, x1 represents a “Gold” subscriptiontier, x2 represents a “Silver” subscription tier, and x3 represents a“Bronze” subscription tier) a distribution of discount is calculated. Adiscount value for distribution (that is, a total discount to be appliedto subscription tiers), for example, as calculated by step 1012, may be,for example 555 (i.e. y=555, that is, the discount to be applied to thebundle of product identifiers is, for example, $555) and the rate atwhich subscription tiers are discounted is, for example, 45% (i.e.z=0.45, that is, each x subscription tier group is discounted at a rateof z more than the previous), and exemplary distribution of the discountas calculated by the Compute WeightedDitributionByTiers function may beas follows:

TABLE 1 Subscription Tier Discount rate Gold (i.e. x1) 0.22 Silver (i.e.x2) 0.319 Bronze (i.e. x3) 0.462

In step 1042, distributed discounts based on the computed discountlevels using the function Compute WeightedDitributionByTiers are appliedto corresponding product identifiers within the bundle of productidentifiers. Accordingly, product identifiers within the bundleassociated to merchants with a subscription tier corresponding to afirst x value (i.e. “Gold”) will be discounted at 22%, productidentifiers within the bundle associated to merchants with asubscription tier corresponding to a second x value (i.e. “Silver”) willbe discounted at 31.9%, product identifiers within the bundle associatedto merchants with a subscription tier corresponding to a third x value(i.e. “bronze”) will be discounted at 46.2%. It can be appreciated byone with ordinary skill in the art that by weighting discountdistribution in such a fashion may enable new sources of income for aservice provider of system 501 through subscription fees, for example,by charging a different subscription fee that would generate a lesserdiscount on product identifiers for that merchant. In a system where aconsumer may bundle product identifiers and provide a purchase offersuch a system would generate increased revenue, both from increasedsales by attracting consumers who may provide “offer prices” on bundledproduct identifiers and/or by generating a new stream of income bycharging for subscriptions.

In an exemplary embodiment where there are four subscription tiers (e.g.x=4), the distribution of discount is calculated by step 1012 may be,for example 1000 (i.e. y=1000) and the rate at which subscription tiersare discounted is, for example, 25% (i.e. z=0.25), and exemplarydistribution of the discount as calculated by the ComputeWeightedDitributionByTiers function would be as follows:

TABLE 2 Subscription Tier Discount rate x1 0.173 x2 0.217 x3 0.271 x40.339

In step 1042, distributed discounts based on the computed discountlevels using the function Compute WeightedDitributionByTiers would beapplied to the bundled product identifiers based on subscription tierlevel. Accordingly, product identifiers within the bundle associated tomerchants with a subscription tier corresponding to a first x tier willbe discounted at 17.3%, product identifiers within the bundle associatedto merchants with a subscription tier corresponding to a second x tierwill be discounted at 21.7%, product identifiers within the bundleassociated to merchants with a subscription tier corresponding to athird x tier will be discounted at 27.1%, product identifiers within thebundle associated to merchants with a subscription tier corresponding toa fourth x tier will be discounted at 33.9%.

In an exemplary embodiment where there are nine subscription tiers (e.g.x=9), the distribution of discount is calculated by step 1012 may be,for example 75 (i.e. y=75) and the rate at which subscription tiers arediscounted is, for example, 10% (i.e. z=0.10), and exemplarydistribution of the discount as calculated by the ComputeWeightedDitributionByTiers function would be as follows:

TABLE 3 Subscription Tier Discount rate x1 0.074 x2 0.081 x3 0.089 x40.098 x5 0.108 x6 0.119 x7 0.13 x8 0.143 x9 0.158

In step 1042, distributed discounts based on the computed discountlevels using the function Compute WeightedDitributionByTiers would beapplied to the bundled product identifiers based on subscription tierlevel. Accordingly, product identifiers within the bundle associated tomerchants with a subscription tier corresponding to a first x tier willbe discounted at 7.4%, product identifiers within the bundle associatedto merchants with a subscription tier corresponding to a second x tierwill be discounted at 8.1%, product identifiers within the bundleassociated to merchants with a subscription tier corresponding to athird x tier will be discounted at 8.9%, product identifiers within thebundle associated to merchants with a subscription tier corresponding toa fourth x tier will be discounted at 9.8%, product identifiers withinthe bundle associated to merchants with a subscription tiercorresponding to a fifth x tier will be discounted at 10.8%, productidentifiers within the bundle associated to merchants with asubscription tier corresponding to a sixth x tier will be discounted at11.9%, product identifiers within the bundle associated to merchantswith a subscription tier corresponding to a seventh x tier will bediscounted at 13%, product identifiers within the bundle associated tomerchants with a subscription tier corresponding to a eighth x tier willbe discounted at 14.3%, product identifiers within the bundle associatedto merchants with a subscription tier corresponding to a ninth x tierwill be discounted at 15.8%. It can should be appreciated by one withordinary skill in the art, that any number of subscription tiers may becomputed to satisfy varying business needs. For example, in a scenariowhere there are high volume sales, a more granular distribution mayprovide a better arrangement from a business perspective.

In a final step 1050, the offer price is accepted and presented to firstconsumer device 550 for purchase confirmation through consumer interface521.

In some embodiments, analytics engine 522 may calculate a dynamicsubscription price based on historical revenue performance fromhistorical database 532. That is, a customized subscription price may becomputed for a given merchant to calculate what a potential revenuefigure may have been had the merchant been at a particular subscriptiontier level, for example, to entice the merchant to, for example, sign upfor a subscription (if the merchant was a non-subscriber), or to upsellthe merchant to a higher subscription tier (if the merchant was alreadya subscriber). In this regard, the dynamic subscription price may beproportional to the computed savings for the merchant based on an“what-if” scenario if previous product identifiers (sold by themerchant) had been discounted at each available subscription tier. Insome embodiments, analytics engine 522 may propose new subscriptiontiers the maximize profit (for example, from subscription revenues) forthe operator of system 501 and/or for the merchant.

The skilled person will be aware of a range of possible modifications ofthe various embodiments described above. Accordingly, the presentinvention is defined by the claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for computing a discount matrix based ona plurality of subscription values and a bundled offer comprising: anetwork-connected bundle-type checkout computer comprising a pluralityof programming instructions stored in a memory and operating on aprocessor, the programming instructions configured to operate abundle-type checkout system comprising: a subscription manager to assigna plurality of subscription values to a plurality of merchant deviceidentifiers associated to a plurality of merchant user devices; amerchant interface to receive, from the plurality of merchant userdevices, a plurality of product identifiers wherein each productidentifier has a corresponding least acceptable offer value and acorresponding retail price value, wherein a corresponding merchantdevice identifier, the corresponding least acceptable offer value, andthe corresponding retail price value associated to each productidentifier are stored in a product database; an offer manager toreceive, from a consumer device, a plurality of selected productidentifiers corresponding to a subset of the plurality of productidentifiers in the product database, and to receive a price offer valuefor a bundle wherein the bundle is the plurality of selected productidentifiers corresponding to the subset of the plurality of productidentifiers; a discount optimization manager to: calculate a totalavailable discount for the bundle based at least in part on a pluralityof least acceptable offer values and the corresponding retail priceassociated to each product identifier in the bundle; calculate arequested discount for the bundle based at least in part on a totalretail bundle price for the bundle and the price offer value, whereinthe total retail price for the bundle is the sum of the correspondingretail price associated to each product identifier in the bundle;calculate a weighted discount matrix based upon the requested discountbeing less than the available discount wherein the matrix holds aplurality of weighted discount values based at least in part on aplurality of subscription values, wherein each weighted discount valuecorresponds to a subscription value; assign a weighted discount value,from the plurality of weighted discount values, for each productidentifier within the bundle, wherein the weighted discount valuecorresponds to an associated subscription tier for each merchant userdevice associated to each product identifier within the bundle;calculate a final price for the bundle; and, calculate a sale price foreach product identifier within the bundle based at least in part on theweighted discount value; wherein the weighted discount values of theweighted discount matrix are calculated at least in part using apre-defined number of subscription tiers, the requested discount, and apre-configured offset value; wherein the weighted discount matrix iscalculated recursively by calculating a plurality of coefficientswherein each coefficient corresponds to each subscription tier, thecoefficients offset by the pre-configured offset value; wherein thediscount optimization manager sends the sale price for each productidentifier to an associated merchant user device of the plurality ofmerchant user devices, the associated merchant user device based on thecorresponding merchant device identifier.
 2. The system of claim 1,wherein a plurality of discount percentage values is calculated for eachsubscription tier and stored in the weighted discount matrix.
 3. Thesystem of claim 2, wherein the final sale price is calculated for afirst product identifier within the bundle based on a firstcorresponding discount percentage value associated to a first merchantuser device corresponding to the first product identifier.
 4. The systemof claim 1, wherein the discount optimization manager sends anotification to the consumer device that the price offer value has beenrejected based upon the requested discount being more than the availablediscount.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the discount matrix iscalculated with a plurality of equal discount values based upon therequested discount being equal to the available discount.
 6. The systemof claim 1, wherein the discount matrix is calculated with a pluralityof equal discount values based upon the requested discount being lessthan the available discount and the bundle comprising a plurality ofproduct identifiers associated to one subscription tier.
 7. The systemof claim 1, wherein the pre-configured offset value is calculateddynamically based at least in part on the plurality of subscriptiontiers.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the least acceptable offervalue is calculated dynamically for each product identifier.
 9. Acomputer-implemented method for computing a discount matrix based on aplurality of subscription values and a bundled offer, the methodcomprising the steps of: assigning, at a subscription manager, aplurality of subscription values to a plurality of merchant deviceidentifiers associated to a plurality of merchant user devices;receiving, at a merchant interface, a plurality of product identifiersfrom the plurality of merchant devices wherein each product identifierhas a corresponding least acceptable offer value and a correspondingretail price value, wherein a corresponding merchant device identifier,the corresponding least acceptable offer value, and the correspondingretail price value associated to each product identifier are stored in aproduct database; receiving, at an offer manager, a plurality ofselected product identifiers corresponding to a subset of the pluralityof product identifiers in the product database, and receiving a priceoffer value for a bundle from a consumer device, wherein the bundle isthe plurality of selected product identifiers corresponding to thesubset of the plurality of product identifiers; calculating, at adiscount optimization manager, a total available discount for the bundlebased at least in part on a plurality of least acceptable offer valuesand the corresponding retail price associated to each product identifierin the bundle; calculating, at a discount optimization manager, arequested discount for the bundle based at least in part on a totalretail bundle price for the bundle and the price offer value, whereinthe total retail price for the bundle is the sum of the correspondingretail price associated to each product identifier in the bundle;calculating, at a discount optimization manager, a weighted discountmatrix based upon the requested discount being less than the availablediscount wherein the matrix holds a plurality of weighted discountvalues based at least in part on a plurality of subscription values,wherein each weighted discount value corresponds to a subscriptionvalue; assigning, at a discount optimization manager, a weighteddiscount value, from the plurality of weighted discount values, for eachproduct identifier within the bundle, wherein the weighted discountvalue corresponds to an associated subscription tier for each merchantuser device associated to each product identifier within the bundle;calculating, at a discount optimization manager, a final price for thebundle; and, calculating, at a discount optimization manager, a saleprice for each product identifier within the bundle based at least inpart on the weighted discount value; wherein the weighted discountvalues of the weighted discount matrix are calculated at least in partusing a pre-defined number of subscription tiers, the requesteddiscount, and a pre-configured offset value; wherein the weighteddiscount matrix is calculated recursively by calculating a plurality ofcoefficients wherein each coefficient corresponds to each subscriptiontier, the coefficients offset by the pre-configured offset value;wherein the discount optimization manager sends the sale price for eachproduct identifier to an associated merchant user device of theplurality of merchant user devices, the associated merchant user devicebased on the corresponding merchant device identifier.
 10. The method ofclaim 9, wherein a plurality of discount percentage values is calculatedfor each subscription tier and stored in the weighted discount matrix.11. The method of claim 10, wherein the final sale price is calculatedfor a first product identifier within the bundle based on a firstcorresponding discount percentage associated to a first merchant userdevice corresponding to the first product identifier.
 12. The method ofclaim 9, wherein the discount optimization manager sends a notificationto the consumer device that the price offer value has been rejectedbased upon the requested discount being more than the availablediscount.
 13. The method of claim 9, wherein the discount matrix iscalculated with a plurality of equal discount values based upon therequested discount being equal to the available discount.
 14. The methodof claim 9, wherein the discount matrix is calculated with a pluralityof equal discount values based upon the requested discount being lessthan the available discount and the bundle comprising a plurality ofproduct identifiers associated to one subscription tier.
 15. The methodof claim 9, wherein the pre-configured offset value is calculateddynamically based at least in part on the plurality of subscriptiontiers.
 16. The system of claim 9, wherein the least acceptable offervalue is calculated dynamically for each product identifier.